The distinction is largely semantic, but it matters to Scott Walker.
“I like to point out that it is not a voting machine,” Walker said. “It’s a counting machine. It’s a scanner, you know, that counts who votes for what.”
Technicalities are integral to Walker’s job as chair of the Fredericksburg Electoral Board. The three-member body, a version of which exists in every locality across the Commonwealth, consists by law of one Democrat, one Republican and one person belonging to the current governor’s party (in this case, Republican). It’s responsible for overseeing elections and issuing rulings on provisional ballots, which are given to voters whose registration or qualifications are in question.
They also make staffing decisions for elections officers, aiming to place an even split of Republicans and Democrats at each of the city’s five precincts.
“Though we have a party label, I mean, this only works if you then leave that at the door,” Walker said. “I mean, there’s no partisanship in [conducting] elections, and the three of us believe that.”
Between 7 p.m. on election day and Nov. 15 — when they’ll meet to certify the vote — Walker and his two Republican counterparts, Michael Beyer and Dave McLaughlin, will review every single provisional ballot cast in the city. According to Walker, in 2023 Fredericksburg had the fifth-highest total of provisional ballots of any locality in Virginia.
And each one requires a judgment call.
“Referee is probably the better word,” Walker said.
For example, if a provisional voter lives in an apartment building but doesn’t list the unit number on their same-day registration, that would be cause for a ballot to be thrown out.
“It sounds well, frankly, pissy, but it’s got to be correct,” he said.
For Walker and his counterparts, election day began at 4:30 a.m., when they met at the office of General Registrar Jessica Atkinson to receive locked boxes filled with ballots to deliver to Fredericksburg’s five precincts.
The precinct captains are the only ones able to unlock the boxes, which are relocked and checked back in at the registrar’s office once polls close.
But preparations for a smooth process began long before election day. Two weeks prior to the start of in-person early voting on Sept. 20, the board conducted “logic and accuracy testing,” personally testing each voting (or is it counting?) machine.
“It starts at zero, and then we have a hundred ballots that we try to put in upside down, backwards,” Walker said. “We, you know, sort of mark them with a crayon, anything to fool the machine.”
After certifying the vote, the electoral board has one more task. This cycle, the state board of elections has ordered a “risk management audit,” or a hand count of selected precincts. That will take place on Nov. 20.
“We’ve made it very plain,” Walker said. “We’re not putting up with any hoo-ha.”
